


Impasse

by writingfromdarkplaces



Series: Fleet Legal Advocate Corps Alternate Universe [2]
Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Flashbacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-24
Updated: 2016-07-24
Packaged: 2018-07-26 12:57:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7574863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writingfromdarkplaces/pseuds/writingfromdarkplaces
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lee knows how this investigation is supposed to end. The conclusion was set before he got there, and whatever this thing is with Kara, that's not going to change. He can't let it change.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Impasse

**Author's Note:**

> I probably shouldn't do this. The way I left A Not So Simple Crash Investigation, it can almost stand alone. This... can't. It's the same universe, picks up a little after where the other left off, and then doesn't finish anything.
> 
> The first few lines came to me, and it formed a bit of something, and it's not much, but I'll throw it out anyway. A little bit of something is better than an incomplete thing that never sees the light of day, right?

* * *

“The call sign no longer fits.”

Kara had felt him tense up, and she figured it had something to do with the scars under her fingertips, but that was just frakking ridiculous. “What, because of this? That doesn't take away one bit from the whole sun god thing.”

He snorted, moving her hands off of him as he shifted, about ready to leave the bed. She rolled herself over, pinning him down. It wouldn't last, she didn't have any illusions about that, but it would buy her time.

“I wasn't lying.”

He fixed her with a long, hard look. “I heard about you. About the legendary Starbuck and how she'd come along and beaten every record I worked so hard to beat, all those things I'd did to prove I wasn't just riding on my father's achievements but that I earned my own, damn it, and they all said the two of us should meet up and see who really was the best—”

“And that has anything to do with me admiring your body how?” Kara demanded, shaking her head. “I'll admit, there is a part of me that wondered—still does sometimes—what it might have been like to fly against you or with you, but since that's not an option, we'll just stick to what you do best.”

“Which is why I am leaving, so get off of me.”

She laughed. “Why would I do that?”

“Because I have work to do, and when it comes to what I do best—”

“It's frakking.”

“Excuse me?”

She just laughed harder, pressing up against him to remind him of the last few hours and how they'd spent them. “You heard me. You might be a hot shot FLAC lawyer now, but your real skill is right here. No sane person would leave this bed for anything, except maybe a Cylon attack.”

“You're insane.”

She grinned, enjoying that accusation for once. Because, stubborn as he was, as distant as he was trying to make himself right now, they'd already shared something incredible, and she wasn't about to ignore that. He actually made her want to stick around for more than one attempt— _attempt,_ lords what a laugh—she'd never had anything like this before, for all that their first encounter had been frantic and fast and should have been the sort of dirty thing you walked away from without looking back. She hadn't just looked back, she'd yanked him in for seconds. And thirds.

“Don't tell me you're not just as crazy. Because, you know, your body is saying you are.”

He groaned. “Gods, why did you have to be so...”

“Good?”

“Obnoxious is a better word for it,” he muttered, turning the tables on her, and she would have enjoyed it if he wasn't doing to get out of the bed. “I have an investigation to finish and then—”

“We both know that you can't finish your investigation,” she said, grabbing hold of his arm. “It was not frakking pilot error. It's the frakking guidance system just like it was with you, but if you try and tell them that—”

“It was pilot error, the investigation is done, and I am leaving,” he said, pulling free of her arm. He left the bed, crossing to where his tanks had fallen, and she sat back, shaking her head in frustration.

“Helo told me you were a bastard. I just didn't figure you for a coward, too.”

Apollo stilled, looking back at her. “Excuse me?”

That was the third time he'd used those words with her, but this time had an edge to them more so than any other. He'd turned them into a warning, but she wasn't about to stop. She folded her arms over her chest. “You heard me. We both know what happened here, but you're just going to back off, put down what they want to hear, and save your own ass. What happened to my pilots—to you—shouldn't happen to anyone else. Or are you really that afraid of them? What, can't live without the commission? How the hell did you ever end up working for the frakkers that took your wings anyway? More cowardice?”

He snorted. “No, back then despite the crash and what they'd done, I was still stupidly optimistic enough to think that if I found proof, I'd clear my own name and even get the damned wings back.”

She watched him, waiting. “What did they do?”

“I thought you said I was just a frakking coward.”

“Prove me wrong,” she said, surprising herself by how much she meant it. Gods, what was he doing to her? This was supposed to just be sex. Well, and keeping her kids from dying because of a stupid program they should never have been running in those vipers, not when it caused his accident and took Apollo out of the sky.

He reached for his uniform shirt, running his fingers over the rank insignia as he spoke. “Mom and Zak were in a car accident. I tried to tell myself the timing was a coincidence, but they made it clear... it wasn't.”

“How?”

“What does that even matter? It's still cowardice to you, isn't it?”

“How?” she demanded, moving over to his side. She put a hand on his face, got him to look at her. “What did they do?”

“It doesn't—”

“It _does_ matter,” she insisted. When he looked at her, a silent question in his eyes, she swallowed. “I can't believe you just gave up when you thought maybe they'd gone after your family. That would have only made you more determined, wouldn't it? Not only did you have to stop that frakking program from being used again, but you had to keep your family from being a target again.”

He shook his head. “You've got a strange idea of who I am and what I would have done.”

She laughed, though this wasn't that funny. “We're talking about a man who made sure he broke every damn record at the Academy. Who still holds one because he wouldn't give up even after he was frakking unconscious. And if the way you frak is any indication of your determination, then an apocalypse couldn't stop you from doing something if you set your mind to it. So what did?”

He met her eyes. “My father commands the _Galactica.”_

“So?”

“So it's an old ship and plenty of things can go wrong on her. Or so I was reminded when they helped me right back into a wheelchair,” he said bitterly. “I heard from my father the next day. We never talk, so I got the message loud and clear—there was an accident, he said, and he didn't give details, but it was enough. It shook my father enough to make him reach out to me. That's when I knew just how far these bastards would take it.”

“You mean they'd murder everyone on one of their own ships to get to you?”

“Yes.”

“Frak.”

* * *

_“I didn't think it would be this difficult for you to get the message.”_

_Lee stopped at the door to his car, frowning. He had thought he was just paranoid, imagining someone behind him, but now, in this deserted lot, he was far from alone. He knew the voice belonged to the person closest to him, but he felt sure there were others, further away and in the shadows._

_“If I missed a memo, you can send it again,” Lee muttered, reaching for the handle to the door, only to end up slammed up against it._

_“If your mother and brother aren't enough to stop you, then maybe you need a better lesson.”_

_Lee's mind spun with the words, trying to understand them even as he knew he had to fight back. He couldn't split focus now. He would deal with the threat later. Shoving off from the car, he freed himself only to be slammed back into the vehicle by a second man. He hit his head, and that had to explain why he was seeing double._

_“I'm going to enjoy this,” the man said as he leaned into Lee. “After all, it's not just anyone who gets to keep the son of Zeus on the ground.”_

Lee shook off the memory, going back to Thrace's window and looking out at the night. He knew better than to do this, any of this. Tempting as it might have been to hear her offer to pursue the crash, he knew he shouldn't. He knew the cost of it, and he knew she could be another one of their plants. It wouldn't be the first time he'd walked into one of their traps.

“Apollo?”

He shook his head. “Don't call me that. It... It never fit, and these days it's worse than a bad joke. Even they try to be funny in their way. That name... you can't even laugh at it.”

“I'm not laughing,” she said, coming over to his side. “I used to think that I had a pretty bum deal, you know. All my disciplinary infractions cost me a good posting and saddled me with a bunch of kids who couldn't tell their heads from their asses. I thought I had it bad as an instructor, but what they did to you was a hell of a lot worse.”

He shook his head. “I'm alive. And I can walk. I'm not in prison. I'm almost lucky when you think about it like that.”

She snorted. “This is no way to live.”

He could think of worse ones.

_“The human body is surprisingly fragile. Do you know how easy it would be to severe this connection permanently?” the man asked, pressing something sharp into Lee's back as he spoke. “I just push this hard enough, and you'll never walk again.”_

_Lee yanked on the man's arm, feeling it tighten against his neck even as he struggled to free himself. He used to be a better fighter, but he'd lost too much after the crash. He'd been an easy target, easier than Zak and his mother and a brake line._

_“And if I do severe that connection, you'll still be alive to see the cost of what you've done.”_

“What are you going to do?”

Lee blinked, pulling away from her again. How was it she always seemed to get close? He hadn't let anyone do that in years. He didn't like being touched, but they always seemed to be connected now, unable to get more than a few inches apart for long.

“I told you. I'm closing the investigation and leaving.”

“What the frak for?”

He gave her a look. “Don't flatter yourself, Lieutenant. You are not worth staying for, as much as the sex was... good.”

“Good? It was better than good, and you know it.”

“Why the hell would you fight for me?” Lee demanded. “I haven't given you a single reason to do it. We fought, and we frakked, and that's it. This isn't anything more than that.”

“I don't even frakking know,” she said, throwing up her hands in frustration. “I have no idea why you are even close to worth this crap. I've never wanted anything more from a man than what I've already gotten from you—Helo being this weird exception where he's actually a friend—and you're good looking but that's never been enough before, and what the frak would I want all of your issues for? I've got plenty of my own.”

“Then we agree. We're done here.”

She nodded, but a second later grabbed hold of him, dragging him with her back to the bed.


End file.
